Rasa
Rasa is a minor supporting character in the Naruto and Shippuden anime and manga series. He was the Fourth Kazekage of the Hidden Sand Village in life, the husband of Karura, and father of their children Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. Background Birth and Rise to power Rasa was born in the Hidden Sand Village at an unknown point in the past and grew into an immensely powerful shinobi who succeeded the Third Kazekage before the start of the Third Great Ninja War after the latter went missing. Leading the village through the war and eventually into an alliance with the 's birth.]]Hidden Leaf Village, the Fourth, along with his village, grew unhappy with the Land of Wind's Feudal Lord cut their budget for shinobi and turned over matters they should have handled to the Leaf. For years following this, the Fourth used his gold dust to help the village finacially. At some point he fell in love with and married a woman of the Hidden Sand Village named Karura and started a family with her. They had three children, Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara. In hopes of producing an ultimate weapon for their village, Rasa had Chiyo, an elder of the village, seal their Tailed Beast Shukaku within Gaara in hopes he would. Doing so, however, caused Karura to die from childbirth after Gaara was born prematurely, despite the Rasa's desperate attempts to save her, leaving him heartbroken. As Gaara grew, he regularly attacked and killed villagers by accident thanks to lacking control over the powers granted to him by Shukaku, with the council of the village deeming him a failure. Still loving his son dearly, Rasa decided to test his worth and ability to control Shukaku by having his uncle, Yashamaru, corner and lie to him about .]] his mother, before the latter committed suicide trying to kill Gaara. Afterwards, his son lost control and transformed into the beast, forcing Rasa to declare him a failure and subdue Shukaku. For a period of time after this, he started to send assassins to kill Gaara and destroy his threat to the village. However, his doing so caused Gaara to adopt the belief he lived purely to kill, which led to him having better control over his powers and his father cancelling all assassination orders in hopes he'd become the ultimate weapon for the village after all. Eventually, Rasa's hate for the state the Feudal Lord's choices had put the Hidden Sand in led him to ally with the S-calss Rogue Ninja Orochimaru of the Hidden Leaf's Sannin to destroy the Leaf and restore the Hidden Sand's glory and stability. Naruto Betrayal and Death Although he never had any appearances or activity in part 1 of the series, Fourth Kazekage Rasa is known to have been betrayed and murdered by Orochimaru, along with his escorts, at a secret meeting in the desert, with the Sannin going on to impersonate him in the Hidden Sand Village to get their cooperation with his plan to destroy the Hidden Leaf Village in his own way. The Hidden Sand didn't discover the truth of Rasa's demise until after the invasion attempt had failed and the bodies of him and his escorts were found in the desert. After this, they broke off all ties with Orochimaru and surrendered to and re-allied with the Leaf. Reanimation and Undead military service Rasa was reanimated as an undead by Kabuto Yakushi, Orochimaru's former right hand, to be used as a military weapon for the Akatsuki's side in the Fourth Great NInja War. Rasa was summoned to the battlefield, along with the Third Raikage and Second Mizukage, by the Second Tsuchikage, Mu, to be put to use. After they talked for a bit and he noticed his son, Gaara's Third Eye watching them, he and the others were forced to follow after Gaara's Fourth Company for a while afterwards, Rasa hoping the Raikage was right about their village's shinobi having surpassed their strength by now. When Gaara raised a tidal wave of sand to attack them with, Rasa used his magnetic powers to counter it with an equally large tsunami made of gold dust. When Gaara appeared along with the current Tsuchikage, Onoki, and they talked over all that had happened since his death, Rasa decided to test his son's worth once more after learning he'd become the Fifth Kazekage. Wanting to see if his son could defeat him, Rasa and Gaara clashed rather equally at first, until he was easily defeated when Gaara's sand pressed through the gold dust at his feet, despite it weighing less, and restrained him. Seeing the sand binding him take the shape of his late wife, Karura, Rasa told Gaara the truth about how much his mother loved him and that she, instead of Shukaku, had always been the source of his Ultimate Defense since she vowed to always protect him as she died, with her spirit and will to do so infusing with his sand. As Gaara told him he had for the first time given him "medicine", Rasa acknowledged his son had surpassed him in more ways than he could have hoped for and entrusted the Hidden Sand to him as Gaara sealed him away in the sand. Later, after Kabuto was forced to release the Reanimation jutsu, Rasa and most of the other undead shinobi, excluding Madara Uchiha, were sent back into the afterlife. They were soon summoned again by Hagoromo Otsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths, to help rescue Team Seven and Madara Uchiha from the realm of his mother, Kaguya Otsutsuki. After they succeeded, Hagoromo sent them all back into the afterlife for good following Madara's death. Personality Although he cared very much for the Hidden Sand Village and loved it and his family both dearly, Rasa found himself torn between his respective duties as village leader and father when his youngest son, Gaara, who was made into a jinchuriki at his order, became a growing threat to the village. Indeed, he still loved him even then, but chose to have him killed after he failed to achieve control over the beast in the end. At this point in time, Rasa also showed a habit of "testing the worth" of the things, including people, which can be somewhat attributed to the fact that the Feudal Lord of the Land of Wind put his village in a state of instability. Despite the fact that she died giving birth to Gaara as a side effect to his order to have Shukaku sealed within Gaara while she was still pregnant with him, Rasa did not know this would end up being the case for his wife, Karura, and began panicking when he was told she was dying, his orders for them to save her being unsuccessful, which left Rasa heartbroken by the loss of his mate. Being a shinobi of the Hidden Sand, Rasa was also doubtlessly very ruthless as a fighter. Powers, Abilities, and Skills Being that he was strong enough to be named Kazekage, Rasa was an immensely powerful shinobi, having been able to easily defeat and subdue Shukaku, his village's Tailed Beast, single-handedly in the past. His power was enough that Kabuto Yakushi reanimated him as an undead for the sake of using him as a military weapon. At this time, despite being at a lack of his full power, the Fourth was able to briefly fight on par with his son, Gaara, who himself was the strongest member of the Five Kage at that time, with ease before being defeated(the anime, however, mockingly reduced his combat capabilities and made him fall for an obvious trap the Fourth didn't fall for in the manga). Magnetic powers Just like the Third Kazekage, Rasa was able to use the Magnet Style kekkei genkai to control metel elements, his choice being gold dust, which he could create immense jutsu as big as Gaara's own sand jutsu. It was by this method that Rasa was able to defeat Shukaku by himself in the past. He could create a tsunami of gold dust that easily overpowered Gaara's Sand Tsunami and a shield through which he could block powerful attacks. It seemed that Rasa was rather famous for using these abilities. Category:Characters Category:Anti-heroes Category:Supernatural Category:Deceased Category:Naruto articles